NORTH HAVEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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NORTHEAST DISTRICT SCHOOL, NORTH HAVEN


Picture
Northeast District Schoolhouse
Picture
Students outside the Northeast District School with teacher Augusta "Gus" Cooper in the doorway, circa 1895
They called it the Northeast Schoolhouse. There were roads and paths to it from all directions that were used by the people that came from the north shore…it was about the same distance for everybody was why they put it there…You had to go through everybody’s lot -- there were animals in the pasture, don’t you see? Yes, most all of them had gates; you had to open gates to go through, and then be sure to fasten it again. We had to open three gates going to school.
Florence Beverage Brown, Interview with Eliot Beveridge, circa 1980

In 1852, the Northeast School was built at a cost of $213.92 after voters agreed to dissolve the East District and create two new districts, the Northeast and Southeast. By 1901, the Northeast School took in students from the Little Thoroughfare when their school closed. In 1904, families declared the location of the Northeast School in the pasture of Brown Farm “very unsatisfactory.” Consequently, the school building was moved to land near the intersection of the Middle and South Shore Roads, where students could access it more easily.

While the Northeast School was closed in 1914 due to low numbers of students, parents petitioned to reopen it in 1918 and classes continued there until 1932. At its closing, the teacher and children were transferred to the Center School. The Northeast School building then went through several owners, was used to store sand for tarring the roads, and eventually became a private residence. It remains standing and is one of the two old island schoolhouses still in existence.
North Haven Historical Society | 77 Pulpit Harbor Road | North Haven, ME 04853 | PHONE 207-867-4752 | EMAIL [email protected]